Zentos Alaricum
Zentos Alaricum is the Fabricator General of Forge World Ferrata that has lived since the Great Crusade, thanks largely to extensive cybernetic augmentation and a period of several millennia spent in stasis. Biologically, Zentos has only lived for around 1,200 years. During the Crusade, he lead a considerable force of Knights and Titans from Ferrata. After falling into stasis in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, he was happened upon in the 41st Millennium. Awakened, he acted as a Freeblade Knight until he gathered sufficient force to reassert control of his Forge World, which had long fallen into irrelevance and decay over the millennia. History Zentos was born the first son of the Fabricator General of Forge World Ferrata. Growing up in a society still connecting to the Imperium after the Treaty of Mars, he was groomed for succession, both in rulership of his planet and in command of his armies.He was raised in the ways of the Cult Mechanicum for an early age, and in his early twenties he took command of his forces, the aptly named Titan Legio Ferrata and Knightly House Ferrum, named slightly differently to avoid confusion between the two. Preferring tactical flexibility, Zentos decided not to lead from the command deck of an Imperator, instead leading from the front in a Knight Paladin. Zentos’ Mechanicum forces were attached as Auxiliaries to the Blood Angels Legion, fighting alongside the Scions of Sanguinius as they pacified the Galaxy. When a planet was so stubborn that even the Astartes struggled, Zentos’ titans went in to clear it, and his Knights and Skitarii fought alongside the Angels on many campaigns. Later on in the Crusade, Zentos’ forces began to work with other Legions, and operate independently. During the Rangdan Xenocides, they once more fought alongside the Blood Angels, the firepower of their God Machines helping greatly against the Xenos threat. When the Horus Heresy began, Zentos was leading his forces in the border regions of Segmentum Obscurus and Solar. Fighting several battles along the way, they withdrew to Terra. They fought on both Mars and Terra, with the majority of their Titans being deployed to the latter. Legio Ferrata held the walls of the Imperial Palace, and were beaten heavily, losing many titans, including their Imperator, to those Legions that had joined the Warmaster's cause. In the Aftermath of the Heresy, Zentos helped pursue the Death Guard back to the Eye of Terror. Zentos also began searching for more STCs, delving into various ruins and Space Hulks. It was in the bowls of one of these Space Hulks that he fell into a Stasis chamber, where he would reside for several millennia. Reawakening Zentos would be discovered in 419.M41 when the Hulk he was on was swept by a task force of Adeptus Astartes from the Battencian Heralds chapter. Initially, he did not think he had been out for long, and was looking forwards to returning to his home world. However, as they were leaving the Space Hulk, the contrary was made apparent. After a brief history lesson, Zentos tried to contact the Adeptus Mechanicus, only to realize that they had gone completely insane. Deciding he didn’t want any part in that mess, Zentos accompanied the Heralds back to Battencia and searched Imperial Archives for information about his Legion, and his World. Unfortunately, both had not been mentioned for several millennia, and they were assumed lost. Realizing he was now almost certainly the last of his House, he took the title Freeblade and attached himself to the Battencian Heralds, fighting alongside them for half a millennium. Towards the end of M41 he would part ways with the Heralds, heading for Segmentum Pacificus, seeking Forge World Ferrata, or whatever was left of it. Post Reawakening The Skirmish on Faroah Shortly after his discovery, in 419.M41, Zentos Alaricum went to a remote outpost on Faroah, Battencia’s moon, to check some old archives that he suspected may hold hints to the whereabouts of Forge World Ferrata in the present galaxy. Shortly after he began his inquiry, he was approached by frantic Scouts, who warned him of incoming Heretic forces, including Renegade Knights. Quickly, he mounted his ancient war machine to join them in the defense. The Scouts made quick work of the mortal cultists that accompanied the Knights, tying them down and eventually destroying them, but their weapons were hopeless against the thick armor of the Questor Traitoris. Zentos rode his knight out of the outpost into battle against these foes. Corrupted Knights Errant, Gallant, and Paladin charged at Zentos, three machines to his one. Quickly, he opened fire, showing the Scouts below that his legendary skills at the helm of Knight had not diminished in the slightest during his time in stasis. The Gallant was the closest to him, and thus was the focus of Zentos’ first volley. He focused on the top and head of the Knight. The pilot of the Gallant, expecting this, angled his Ion Shield, and the shots did no damage. Exploiting his battle cannon’s high rate of fire, Zentos quickly dipped his shot. The Gallant could not react in time, and two shells impacted on the machine’s knee, sending it plummeting to the ground. Alive, but incapable of continuing its approach. With the Gallant down and out of the fight, Zentos changed his focus to the two Knights left standing. The Errant continued its rapid advance, the Paladin hot on its heels. Zentos angled his ion shields and blocked a blast from the Errant’s thermal cannon, before the Errant could swipe at Zentos with his chainsword, he dipped to the side, grabbing the Errant with his battle cannon arm. Then, he spun to the left and angled the Errant so that it was between him and the Paladin, which now had to turn right to face Zentos. As he pulled away from the Errant, he performed a mighty downwards chop that shattered the Ion Shield of the opposing Knight and with a great metallic screech, rended the Thermal Cannon arm from its shoulder. The Errant raised its chainsword to strike, but Zentos knocked it aside with his battle cannon before lunging forwards with his chainsword, penetrating the chest of the Errant and sending it to its doom, almost hitting the Knight Paladin as it fell. The Paladin, the only one of the Traitors left in fighting condition, now came onto Zentos, and the two, after trading a few Battle Cannon salvos at point blank range, entered melee combat. The Paladin kept its feet planted, striking at Zentos with haymaker strikes that he turned aside either with his Ion Shield or his own Chainsword. Meanwhile, he danced around the Paladin, showing the kind of footwork one can master with his many centuries of experience. The Paladin put up a valiant fight, but as their duel dragged on, the Traitor sustained more and more damage, and eventually Zentos snuck in a swift strike that cut from its left hip to its right shoulder, annihilating the cockpit. As he headed back to the base, he stopped just outside arms reach of the disabled Knight Gallant, and emptied his battle cannon into its head. The Defense of Epipolae As the 41st Millennium came to a close Battencia, and with it Zentos, found itself under increasingly intense attack by the forces of Chaos. Zentos took his retinue and began to fight against new Chaotic threats to the Zylos subsector. In 996.M41, the mining Gas Giant of Palacios came under attack, in the Dardia system. Chaotic forces had boarded the planet’s primary mining platform and one of Forge World Epipolae’s Skitarii Macroclades was fighting desperately against a warband of World Eaters. Zentos augmented their numbers with himself and his Skitarii, and together they held their ground and inflicted many casualties on the heretics. His Knight provided the heavy fire support necessary to break the World Eaters in the close quarters fighting that ensued, and when the battle was finally over, he quickly had to move once more. Epipolae itself was set upon by a Space hulk that carried a dread band of Nurglitch Space Marines from The Harbingers of the Cycle. Zentos lead his men aboard the space hulk and fierce hand to hand fighting ensued. As far as they could go, Zentos fought from his Knight and tore each Heretic he came upon asunder. When his Knight could fit no longer, he dismounted. A rarity for him, Zentos lead his men ahead on foot. The Harbingers came at them in endless waves. They cared for nothing, not even their own lives, in their attempt to overrun the Mechanicum forces. Zentos fired his Volkite Serpenta so much that if his hand was organic, it’d probably have burned off. Eventually, they fought to the bridge of the decrepit vessel, and in its ancient systems, corrupted cogitators dating back to the Great Crusade itself, Zentos Alaricum made a discovery unlike any other. Finally, after over 5 centuries of searching, he had found the location of Ferrata, his long lost home. THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS SET IN THE SKAVENTIDE AU AND IS NOT CANON Skaventide Zentos’ travels towards Ferrata would lead him to the orbit of the agri world of Spaunus, an agri world near the Obscurus border. His ship would dock at a space station in orbit of the planet, and upon his arrival he would receive a message from Acolyte Naerina of the Ordo Theoreticus. Zentos had been contacted before by the Ordo some time before, who, having heard of his long life, sought him out to confirm several theories on matters that dated back to the Great Crusade. This time, the message consisted of a top secret briefing on the nature of the Skaven, and a request, a mission: Stop the Skaven Virus tearing its way through Segmentum Pacificus. Searching the station, he met Frederick Veil, who, after his boss had died on the planet, was the new Rogue Trader in charge of the Glorious Aspirations. Veil offered to help Zentos in his mission, and offered him use of the Aspirations and its crew. Transferring Zentos’ equipment from the freighter he had loaned, they set off for Stratholme, the planet where the cure was rumored to be located. They arrived on the planet, landing near an Ordo Theoreticus facility that supposedly held the cure. No contact had been received from the facility in two weeks. Zentos lead Frederick and his men into the facility, fighting the Skaven they found inside. Battling their way through the facility, they eventually found a hidden door that lead to another, deeper portion of the facility. At the end of that portion, they found the cure. Quite unfortunately, they found that the cure was Subject 799, a Nurglite artifact in Ordo Theoreticus possession. The artifact itself is a staff, constantly covered in dirt. Upon doing some testing, Zentos deduced that it worked that it worked by sucking diseases from those nearby, channeling them for further use by the wielder. Zentos was somewhat dismayed to be working with an artifact representing his hated foe Nurgle, but he acknowledged it was the only way to cure the disease, which by now had spread into a considerable portion of the Segmentum, before it was too late. However, accessing the staff’s full power, enough for the cure to be used on a large scale, would take time, and this, plus the emergence of the Skaven on the planet’s surface above them, forced them to hunker down, sending a message to Naerina, who in return sent an urgent distress call to Imperial forces in the area. Zentos and his comrades dug in, awaiting the arrival of Imperial reinforcements and monitoring vox channels as Imperial forces fought the Skaven above them. Eventually, a combined force of Imperial Guard and Harlequins reached the labs, and were welcomed in to meet up with the cure. Zentos and Veil split up. Veil would take some of his men and the relief force up to the roof of the facility where they would be evacuated to the fleet by Valkyrie, while Zentos and the rest of Veil’s men would fight their way to a nearby shuttle. Zentos and his contingent fought their way through about three dozen Skaven, taking no losses due to the immense firepower Zentos' Knight was able to bring to bear, annihilating most of them from a range where their weapons stood no chance of harming Veil's men. Then, as their shuttle flew towards orbit, they were attacked by Skaven flyers, but Space Marine fighters, antiaircraft weapons, and Zentos himself, using his Battle Cannon while standing on the shuttle's open ramp all fought them off, with the shuttle sustaining little damage. Quickly, the cure was brought aboard the Glorious Aspirations, and when it was used, the Skaven plague was gathered into the staff, curing Segmentum Pacificus. However, the threat was not over. The Skaven had made more progress in other sectors of the Galaxy, and the victorious forces over Stratholme were withdrawn to defend the Sol system. As they entered the system, Zentos quickly made his way to Mars, arriving shortly before the Skaven. Embraced with open arms by Belisarius Cawl, who he had known back millennia before, Zentos gave a rousing speech to the defenders, and prepared them for war. When the Skaven finally did come, they came in numbers unending. By the thousands they ran towards the Defenders, but Zentos and his comrades did not falter. They murdered Skaven by the score with explosives and automatic weapons fire, and in the end, the home of the Omnissiah stood undaunted. After the Skaven threat had been defeated, Zentos was brought before Belisarius Cawl to be given a great gift: Dozens of Knight carapaces to rebuild the lost House Ferrata, and an Ark Mechancium of his own to command, the Alaricum, an Ark build millennia prior and named with the intent to be a posthumous honor to Zentos himself. When its captain had been killed defending Mars during the previous battle, there was only one obvious choice for the ship's new master. Greatly bolstered by this aid from Mars itself, Zentos prepared for the next great campaign. The Ferrata Crusade With the Alaricum as a new base of operations, Zentos sent out a call for arms. Distributing notices throughout the Imperium, and calling in every favor he had, he amassed a sizable army. Knights, Freeblade warriors and fighters from Houses of every color and stripe, came to his aid. As did Skitarii by the Macroclade, primarily elements from Epipolae. His ever-loyal Skitarii, who had been with Zentos this entire time, accompanied him, as did the Order of the Machine god and Frederick Veil, with the combined might of his Trader fleet. Even forces of the Adeptus Astartes and the Talons of the Emperor accompanied him on this great undertaking. Equipment On foot, Zentos carries a Volkite Serpenta and a Transonic blade, both ancient models that have seen much use over Zentos' very long life. Zentos has 3 Mechadendrites and 1 Servo Arm that can also be employed as weapons in a tight situation. More recently, these have been the basis for an upgrade to Zentos' personal armament. Before the Defense of Mars, Zentos took a heavy stubber and fixed its body to the Servo Arm on his back, and grabbed it near the muzzle by one of his Mechadendrites. He linked this mechadendrite to targeting software in his eye to enable precise aiming and target tracking. Zentos does not carry this weapon at all times, so he only fixes it on when he knows he will be going into a major battle where he will be declined use of his Knight. Of course though, no pilot is complete without his Knight. Zentos is no exception, and his Knight, the Unbroken Warrior, is one of legend. An ancient Knight Paladin, its weaponry and systems date back to the Great Crusade, and incorporate archaeotechnology. Its battle cannon is hard-hitting and quick firing, and its chainsword has tore countless foes asunder. The ion shields function without failure, reacting perfectly to Zentos' precise adjustments to reflect any dangerous incoming fire. Zentos is perfectly in tune with his Knight, and this alone has been influential in defeating foes much larger than himself. Allies Enemies Mortarion Zentos has a personal animosity and long-standing feud with the Primarch of the Fourteenth. This rift probably would've cost Zentos his life were it not for the patronage of the Mechanicum and Sanguinius. During the Heresy, he barely managed to stave off the Traitor Primarch, and centuries later after he disappeared, Mortarion would lead his Death Guard to sack Zentos' homeworld of Ferrata. Quotes By Zentos Alaricum About Zentos Alaricum Gallery Category:Adeptus Mechanicus Category:Characters Category:Imperial Characters Category:Imperial Knights Category:Inquisition Category:Ferrata Category:Adeptus Mechanicus Characters